PM en route to Washington says "sometimes being right also means being smart," stresses he will bring up "principal matters" regarding Israel’s existence with US president during meeting.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu en route to a Washington meeting Friday morning with US President Barack Obama, said "there are certain things that cannot be swept under the rug."

Netanyahu was referring to a negative response Thursday to President Obama’s Mideast speech.

"Sometimes being right also means being smart," he said, playing on the phrase that sometimes it’s better to be smart than right.

He said this is especially true when dealing with principal matters that are part of the Israeli consensus.

An official on board the plane taking Netanyahu to Washington told reporters, "There is a feeling that Washington does not understand the reality, doesn’t understand what we face."

"The prime minister’s tough response expresses the disappointment with the absence of central issues that Israel demanded, chiefly the refugee (issue)," he added.

Netanyahu said he will bring these matters up in his meeting with Obama and in his speech to congress and AIPAC.

He is expected to meet the president for an hour at 11:15 local time, after which they will both issue statements before going into a working lunch.

The prime minister issued a quick, bitter response on Thursday night to Obama’s speech, saying that the establishment of a Palestinian state could not come “at Israel’s expense.”

“The Palestinians, and not only the US, must recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people,” he said.

Netanyahu said he “expects to hear from President Obama a reconfirmation of commitments to Israel from 2004 that received wide support in both houses of Congress.”